Activision Allegedly Rushed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Development

Game ZXC

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)

By John Paul Joaquin

Published Nov 10, 2023

Highlights

Modern Warfare 3's disappointing single-player campaign can be attributed to Activision rushing its development, leading to a lack of elements that would make it interesting.
Critics and fans, particularly those familiar with the older Modern Warfare games, are unimpressed with Modern Warfare 3's campaign, describing it as poorly written and lacking originality.
Activision's decision to rush the development of Modern Warfare 3, with a record-breaking short development time of 16 months, may have affected the length and quality of the game's campaign, as reflected in poor review scores.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 players could credit the game's disappointing single-player campaign to Activision's alleged decision to rush the game's development. Call of Duty fans found Modern Warfare 3's campaign wanting, even before it became publicly available, when compared to the original Modern Warfare trilogy released around a decade ago.

Gamers and Call of Duty fans, especially those of the old Modern Warfare games, and critics are generally not impressed with Modern Warfare 3's campaign. Many found it short and lacking various elements that would make it interesting, with Call of Duty content creator TheGamingRevolution even describing it as poorly written and lacking tension, stakes, and originality. As a result, some resorted to reviewing bombing the original Modern Warfare 3, which Activision released in 2011. Though it's unclear why they review bombed the original 2011 game, their feelings about its remake are, and they might be justified in feeling as such.

A report from Bloomberg revealed that Activision rushed Modern Warfare 3's development to fill a gap in the release schedule after allegedly delaying a sequel to 2014's Advanced Warfare. According to Bloomberg's sources, who asked not to be named, Activision executives rebooted the smaller Modern Warfare spinoff they were working on and transformed it into a full sequel to Modern Warfare 2 instead. The change of plans ate into the developers' schedule, leaving them with roughly 16 months - the shortest development time for a new Call of Duty game - to work on Modern Warfare 3.

Bloomberg's sources also said that more than a dozen developers, former and current, thought Modern Warfare 3 was an expansion to Modern Warfare 2. Some said the plan for Modern Warfare 3's development was left ambiguous, while others claim they were directly told it was an expansion. While Activision revealed that Modern Warfare 3 was a standalone game later in the process, some developers felt betrayed as they were promised they wouldn't have to work through another short development timeline as they did with Call of Duty: Vanguard.

The record-breaking development time Sledgehammer developers had to work on Modern Warfare 3 may have affected the length of the game's campaign. Players could take 5 to 8 hours to finish Modern Warfare 3's campaign, though it can vary depending on the difficulty setting they choose and if they are acquiring collectibles along the way. Regardless, the poor review scores the game is getting from critics and gamers speak volumes about the decisions Activision may or may not have made. Whether Activision learned from Modern Warfare 3's campaign and will do better with its sequel as a result is anybody's guess.